Magic Trick
by whiteflower122
Summary: Xibalba's gotten himself a new hobby since he can't terrorize the mortals anymore. La Muerte notices this and Xibalba decides to show it off to her. Gravepainters Oneshot.


**Disclaimer: I don't own the Book of Life or any of the characters.**

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><p>Magic Trick (A Xibalba and La Muerte Story)<p>

La Muerte took a deep breath of the cool night air, holding in for a moment before exhaling it out slowly.

It was a another outing for the two gods of the dead. They were on their usual perch on top of the church bell tower, watching the humans below. But the goddess' thoughts were really on the mortals. They were more on the god beside her.

Ever since Xibalba had lost their bet and couldn't infer with the lives of mankind, she had to admit he was doing a pretty good job with behaving himself. There were a few times every now and then she would have to scold him for pull little pranks on the living when he managed to slip away from her sight( she has to admit her husband was slippery one), he stayed true to his word. Although he would still grumble about how he never got to have any fun anymore.

Thinking about Xibalba caused her eyes to flicker to her right just to see if he was still next to her. Thankfully she saw he was still there, but before she turn her attention back to the humans, she did a double take.

'_What is he doing?_' La Muerte wondered as she turned her head to the side.

The king of the Land of the Forgotten had a small, ball of green fire in the palm of his left hand while the fingers on his right were moving around it, causing the flames to take shape.

The queen tilted her head, trying to figure out what he was making exactly. Curiosity, got the better of her so she asked, "Xibalba, what is that?"

Xibalba jumped a little at the sudden question and it made her corners of her mouth twitch upwards. Apparently he had been so focused on what he was doing, he forgot she was next to him. Xibalba turned to face her. "What's what, love?"

"That."

He followed her line of vision and saw she was looking at his hand. "Oh, you mean this." He extended his arm out to give her a better look.

Sitting in his hand was a small skull, similar looking to the ones that serve as his eyes. Only this one was green and made completely out of fire.

La Muerte's eyes widened and she moved closer to examine it. "I didn't know you could do something like this."

The god shrugged. "It's nothing special really."

"How come I've never seem you do this before?"

"I never had to do it before until now."

Here she cocked an eye ridge at him. "So why start now?"

He gave another shrug of his shoulders. "Well, I figured since I can't mess with mortals, I need to find myself a new hobby."

The goddess rolled her eyes at that. But as she continued looking at the skull, a question popped into her head. "Can you make other things or is it just skulls?"

"I can make anything I want." he answered, "Something like this to me is a parlor trick." One of his long, white eyebrows went up. "Why? Do you want me to make something else?"

Her golden eyes locked with his red ones. "Would you?"

Xibalba smiled. "Of course, _mi amor._ Anything for you."

La Muerte matched his smile with one of her own. He was always so quick to try and please her.

He closed his hand into a fist and reopened it to reveal he had destroyed the skull and another ball of fire took its place. "What shall I make? A heart?"

"Hmm, what about..."She paused, placing a finger on her lips in thought. "A flower?"

"A marigold?" he guessed as it was her favorite flower.

"A rose." That was her second favorite flower.

"As the lady wishes." Xibalba let his right hand to hover over the fire. He closed his fingers together and moved them upwards. The flames began to follow his hand as though they were being pulled by a string. It started to from into the stem and when he twirled his hand in a small circler motion a flower bud appeared. Then with one, long finger, he actually touched the bud causing it to bloom like a real flower would before it harden into an crystal-like form.

La Muerte let out a small, awed gasp. "Oh, Balby, it's beautiful."

The king held it out to her. "Take it."

She looked at him, surprised. "But won't it-"

"It won't burn you. I promise."

For a long moment, she just glanced from the flower, to her husband and back to the flower again. She knew Xibalba would never intentionally try to hurt her so she reached out and grabbed the rose by the stem. It felt warm beneath her fingers, but like he said it didn't burn her.

La Muerte brought the green flower close to her chest and gently stroked the smooth petals. She looked back at Xibalba and smiled warmly. "Thank you, Balby. it's lovely,"

"It's yours. It will stay like that until I do otherwise."

"So...forever?"

"Pretty much."

"Then I'll treasure it always."

Xibalba beamed. "Good know."

Things were quiet for a little bit before La Muerte decided to break it. "You know, Xibalba, you've been behaving yourself pretty well lately."

"Oh?" He gave her a devilish grin. "Do I get a reward for my good behavior?"

She gave it some thought and that's when a sneaky plan came to her. La Muerte leaned in close until her face was only a few inches away from his. "I might consider it..." she purred, taking in how his eyes widened and his wings twitched in anticipation. She moved even closer so that her lips were centimeters from touching his and flashed a mischievous smile. "But only if you catch me." With that the sugar skull queen vanished in puff of marigold petals, leaving her dumbstruck husband behind.

Xibalba blinked. What just happened? Realization dawned on him and with a smirk, he changed into a line of tar and took after his wife.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Wow, two little Gravepainters stories up in one day?! I'm pretty proud of myself. So I got the idea for this story from this beautiful picture I saw on Tumblr by Obligatorychinchillas. <strong>**Hope you guys like it!**


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